Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada might join efforts to ensure freedom of navigation in the Middle East if there is a ceasefire. Reporters asked Carney today how Ottawa might get involved in efforts to reopen shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has blockaded in response to the U.S. and Israel launching a war on Iran a month...
After more than a decade of plodding progress, Canada has officially hit the NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP set during the Wales Summit of 2014. According to data in the NATO Secretary-General’s annual report released this morning, Canada spent more than $60 billion on defence in 2025 – an amount that adds up to two per...
Oil pipeline system connecting Alberta to West Coast was previously expected to fill up by 2027 or 2028 The Trans Mountain oil pipeline system is expected to operate at full capacity in April and into May as a result of energy disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East. The pair of pipelines transport oil from Edmonton to a...
An air bubble of about half a billion barrels of oil is set to wreak havoc on global economies. For every day the war in the Middle East drags on, the crisis in energy markets deepens. The price of everything from gas and oil to jet fuel and plastics is rising sharply. That crisis is set to get dramatically worse...
The prime minister said there should be a public apology for a spying operation targeting hundreds of Indigenous people that had the support of the federal government. "Yes, there should be an apology," Mark Carney said during a press conference in Halifax on Thursday. "It’s a reprehensible practice. Never should’ve happened." Carney was responding to reporting from CBC Indigenous, which...
A new national survey from Liaison Strategies reveals a shifting landscape in the NDP leadership race, with Avi Lewis and Heather McPherson both making notable gains in favorability over the past year. The survey, which tracked the favorability of potential and declared candidates, highlights a significant increase in profile for Avi Lewis. Lewis has seen his favorability nearly double, rising...
Voting is open in the federal NDP leadership race, with five candidates hoping to lead the party into an uncertain future. The leader will be announced at the convention in Winnipeg on Sunday, and the first task after winning will evidently be introducing themselves to many would-be voters. New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute examines the views of...
The Liberal government is proposing new legislation to strengthen electoral integrity by banning digital deepfakes of candidates, cracking down on unduly long ballots and protecting nomination and leadership contests. The government says the Strong and Free Elections Act responds to recommendations from an inquiry into foreign interference and from others, including the chief electoral officer. The new bill would also...
The public servant leading the transition away from the federal government's error-prone Phoenix pay system says he's stepping down because the team no longer needs him. Alex Benay, associate deputy minister at Public Services and Procurement Canada, says in a LinkedIn post the backlog of Phoenix cases older than a year and the overall queue of complaints are at their...
I have an urgent request for Prime Minister Mark Carney: please come to Vaughan, Ont., to meet with our Jewish community. As Vaughan’s mayor, I want you to know that Jews here feel angry, scared, defiant, tired, shocked and beleaguered. Who can blame them? I’ve lived my entire life in this country, but I have never before witnessed the shocking...
The Supreme Court spent most of this week hearing oral arguments in what is widely known as the Bill 21 case, after the infamous Quebec law banning the wearing of religious symbols in much of the public sector – effectively a hiring bar on observant members of certain religious minorities. Only it isn’t really Bill 21 that is at issue...
MY EXCELLENT FRIEND and former colleague Steve Walt of the Harvard Kennedy School calls them the predatory hegemons. America, China, and Russia are prowling the world, turning a rule-ordered playing field into a jungle in which the rule of the strongest prevails. The middling powers Prime Minister Mark Carney talked about at Davos are scrambling to escape the jungle. Carney’s...
For years, the dismal state of 24 Sussex Drive has been a recurring punchline, a symbol of political paralysis, and a quiet national embarrassment. I spent years inside the machinery of government, close enough to watch good policy die, not from bad ideas, but from political timidness. The file on 24 Sussex is one I know well. It remains, after...
Those who aspire to lead democratic nations are tested from the moment they declare their candidacy. Does he speak well? Is she good on her feet? How will he handle the economy? Will she be trusted in a crisis? Each candidate is sliced and smeared and pressed onto a slide, so that the electorate can inspect every personal and professional...
The Carney government needs to get its story straight on foreign interference and transnational repression — especially as it relates to India. After this government insisted that the Indian government was cooperating with the Canadian investigation into the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and other crimes like extortion and arson, the Indian government said there was never anything to investigate...
You’d never know it, given the scarcity of attention accorded the NDP leadership race, but there is so much riding on it. There’s the question of whether the party can survive, whether the sagging left in Canada can keep it alive. There is, ipso facto, the question of whether Canada is reduced to an American-styled two-party system, with less choice...
Just as turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, it would be unreasonable to expect Canada’s chicken farmers to elect for more open trade with the world’s major poultry exporter. The chicken sector is, after all, one of this country’s supply-managed industries. It’s protected from most foreign competition, ostensibly in the name of domestic food security but also, whisper it, to ensure...
There are days when Canada just makes me want to crawl under the bed and hide. Days when I wonder if this country really is redeemable, despite its endless natural resources, generally level-headed and tolerant population, geographic insulation from global strife and hundreds of years of good luck. Tuesday was one of those days. Wednesday was another. I’m not expecting...
Several years ago, a cabinet minister seated next to me at an Ottawa dinner, leaned in. The chatter around the table was the NDP’s particularly biting criticism of the Trudeau government that day. “I don’t mind,” the minister whispered in my ear. “They keep us honest.” This minister believed pressure from the NDP kept the Grits true to their values...
Except for the ill-conceived public campaign to get well-known commentator Don Cherry installed as a member of the Order of Canada, the Conservatives look like they have carved out a few positive weeks for themselves. It’s better than the abysmal fall and early winter that left many Conservative supporters in a foul mood, and Leader Pierre Poilievre constantly having to...
Avi Lewis likes neon-sign politics. That was the point of the Leap Manifesto he co-authored more than a decade ago in a bid to prod the NDP to the left. He didn’t propose steps. He wanted a leap. “We’re challenging decades of political clichés. So we want to spend like drunken sailors,” he said then, in an interview at the...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith faces heat Tuesday from some folks who likely voted for her and the UCP in the last provincial election. Heat from those who may support Smith and like a lot of what she’s doing but think the deal she inked with Prime Minister Mark Carney to get a pipeline to the west coast is not worth...
Every March, millions of fans set aside their better judgment and give themselves over to the chaos of a basketball tournament aptly called March Madness. Its charm is simple. Anything can happen. Underdogs from small colleges sometimes topple the giants. We watch, we wince, we marvel. This year, the madness has spilled beyond the court into far more dangerous territory...
The scale of growth of Canada’s assisted-dying industry has become an easy talking point for skeptics both in Canada and abroad. The New York Post, in typical tabloid fashion, announced that Canada will “soon cross the sickly six-figure threshold” of 100,000 deaths by medical assistance in dying (MAID), noting the figure will surpass the number of Canadian deaths during the...
Start with the crisis everyone agrees on. A generation of young Canadians has been priced out of home ownership. Rents are consuming incomes. The dream of a mortgage, a backyard, a place to call one’s own has become, for millions, exactly that — a dream. Any serious federal leader must make housing affordability a defining mission. Which makes what I’m...
If you lay on the beach on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, warming your northern skin and admiring the play of the sun on the waves, you can sip pina coladas made from beautiful local pineapple juice, and when you want a snack, you can pay a few pesos for a little bag of brown Spanish peanuts from...
There are many ways that governments can be defeated, from self-inflicted scandals and political corruption to their failure to respond to broader global trends and events. But few things will bring a government to its knees faster than unchecked food price inflation. The surge of post-COVID inflation and the impact it had on grocery bills transformed the politics in most...
Despite some blemishes on Mark Carney’s otherwise immaculate image, his personal approval ratings are off the charts. If an election were held tomorrow, the Liberals would win north of 200 seats. Here's why.
Marjorie Harris and Michael Hughes are deadlocked, with net favourability scores of +1. The thing is, they are made up names for an experiment. Ever since I started working in public opinion research (back in the early 1980’s) I was keen to know about the sources of bias that can creep into research unless care is taken in survey design.
From the moment that Donald Trump first started talking about Canada as the 51st state, all sorts of people have debated whether the president was joking or serious. The answer, it seems, is both, and we learned that this week when Pierre Poilievre sat down for an epically long conversation with the right-wing American podcaster Joe Rogan.
We live in an increasingly uncertain world. Amid trade wars, hot wars, geopolitical conflicts, and rising oil prices, the disruption-and-destruction rap sheet of the second Trump administration grows longer by the day. As Prime Minister Mark Carney said during his now-famous Davos Speech on January 20, as a middle power, Canada must adapt to this challenging new context. Yet, despite...
What in heaven’s name is going on in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government with regard to the threat posed to Canada’s national security by India?
If Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had asked me whether he should go on Joe Rogan’s podcast in the United States this week, I would have told him, “No.” I would have been wrong. Poilievre’s appearance on the world’s No. 1 podcast may well mark the moment when he began turning around Canadian voters’ impression of him.
Sometime during the evening of April 13th, Mark Carney will quite likely find out that his majority in the House of Commons is secure. The results of the upcoming federal by-elections in University-Rosedale and Scarborough West in Toronto will confirm that. If, a few hours later, a Liberal victory in the Montreal-adjacent riding of Terrebonne is also confirmed, that will...
Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty announced on Thursday a $738.9-million funding package for First Nations health care, governance and emergency management. She is earmarking $55.6 million to build up community preparedness and emergency management co-ordination. The funds are not directly related to fire management but could help with operations such as wildfire support. Gull-Masty's department is under heavy pressure from...
Indigenous Services Canada and other departments are failing to uphold their own Indigenous procurement strategy and may be allowing contractors to use shell companies to access contracts reserved for Indigenous businesses, says the federal procurement ombudsman. In a scathing new report released Thursday, Alexander Jeglic says Indigenous Services Canada failed to provide timely answers to procurement officers' questions in some...
The head of Air Canada apologized on Thursday for delivering an English-only video response to Sunday’s collision between one of the airline’s planes and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York City that left two pilots dead. “Despite many lessons over several years, unfortunately, I am still unable to express myself adequately in French,” Michael Rousseau said in...
Ontario's finance minister will unveil the province's budget today, which is not expected to have any tax increases. Peter Bethlenfalvy has signalled Ontarians must plan for tougher times ahead as U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war continues and global conflicts push strong headwinds against Ontario's economy. Ontario's deficit earlier this year stood at $13.4 billion and its overall debt as...
Conservatives are calling for resignation of current minister and 2 predecessors. Justice Minister Sean Fraser, who was in charge of immigration during some of the years Auditor General Karen Hogan found instances of fraud in Canada's international student program, said with hindsight, he would have acted sooner to fundamentally change it. The Opposition Conservatives have been calling for his resignation...
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney is taking up the Canadian cause as he's set to participate in two debates about separatism against a lawyer pushing for the province to go its own way. The first debate will take place in Edmonton in May at a member's only conference put on by Civitas Canada, a conservative non-profit organization.
The MP representing Tumbler Ridge, B.C., has described how a 12-year-old girl heroically tried to save two classmates shot in the mass killing in the community last month. Bob Zimmer told Tuesday's National Prayer Breakfast in Ottawa that the girl, named Christina, had dragged both Abel Mwansa Jr. and Maya Gebala under a table after both of the 12-year-olds were...
A House of Commons committee is calling on the government to make it harder for protest groups to sign up dozens of candidates in a single riding, after Elections Canada announced Wednesday that voters in an upcoming byelection in Quebec will use a write-in ballot because of the high number of candidates.
Ahead of the Liberal Party’s national convention next month, members of its youth wing are urging candidates for national chair of their body to remain independent from government, warning against treating the role as a stepping stone to high-profile Hill jobs. Speaking with The Hill Times on a not-for-attribution basis, supporters of the third-party “Young Liberals for Change” pledge say...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is criticizing Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau for his English-only message of condolences to the families of the pilots who died in a plane crash on Sunday at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. “We live in a bilingual country, and companies like Air Canada particularly have a responsibility to always communicate in both official languages regardless of...
Alberta Liberal MP Corey Hogan says the Keystone XL pipeline is being used as leverage in the federal government’s ongoing trade talks with the U.S. “I can tell you that Keystone XL and the energy security it would provide the United States has always been one of the cards that Canada has in our deck as we start thinking about...
Nearly half of those who voted for the federal NDP at least once over the past four elections don't recognize the names of the current leadership candidates, a new poll suggests. The Angus Reid Institute surveyed 1,100 Canadians who voted for the NDP at least once between 2015 and 2025 and found that 44 per cent of respondents said they...
The Quebec Conservatives now have an elected member in the national assembly after a former cabinet minister with the Coalition Avenir Quebec crossed the floor to join the party. Maite Blanchette Vezina, who had quit the CAQ to sit as an Independent in September, joined the Conservatives on Tuesday and announced she will run for the party in the October...
The Nova Scotia legislature has been closed to the public after singing protesters stalled a budget vote Tuesday night. Saf Haq says she and about 40 others broke into song just before midnight when the legislature moved to vote on a budget-related bill that would result in a series of cuts to government programs. Haq says that after about 1...
Ontario is planning to temporarily expand HST rebates on the purchase of new homes, in a bid to boost a struggling home construction sector. The government previously introduced rebates for first-time homebuyers on new homes valued up to $1.5 million, with homes valued at $1 million or less qualifying for the maximum amount of $130,000 when combined with a federal rebate.
The union representing staff at Global Affairs Canada says the foreign service is laying off dozens of its most skilled diplomats, while asking other envoys moving across continents to wait months for their personal items. The cuts come as Global Affairs Canada sets out its plans to meet budgetary belt-tightening requirements laid out by Prime Minister Mark Carney last year...
Members of Parliament last year went on the fewest sponsored international trips in the last 15 years, excluding the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the ethics commissioner's annual report on sponsored travel tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday, only 15 MPs accepted international travel paid for by an organization or interest group in 2025, totalling $78,721...
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is accusing U.S. President Donald Trump of fuelling the war in Iran to distract from the millions of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, also referred to as the “Epstein files,” saying the conflict is driving up gas prices for Canadians. In an interview with CTV’s Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday, Kinew...
As soon as he stepped inside the café, Charles Milliard began turning heads. Among those enjoying their coffee who spotted the new Quebec Liberal Party leader as he made his way through Café Hubert Saint-Jean, located in the province’s Eastern Townships, was Normand Duval.
Legislation on the issue came about after fallout from a Supreme Court of Canada decision last October
Oil and gas execs encouraged by policy changes, still want to see action to support energy sector expansion. In Texas this week for a global energy conference, the federal natural resources minister is proclaiming "Canada is back" and ready to bolster its energy sector and grow exports. The message by Tim Hodgson comes at a time when the world is...
Democrat Emily Gregory won a special election for a Florida state House seat on Tuesday, flipping a district that is home to President Donald Trump's estate, Mar-a-Lago. The Republican president endorsed Gregory's rival, Jon Maples. In a social media post Monday, he urged voters to turn out, saying Maples was endorsed "by so many of my Palm Beach County friends."...
'I want to know how many terrorists are there in Canada,' Conservative says. Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree faced pointed questions Tuesday about why the federal government has deported one Iranian official, despite longstanding concerns about how the regime operates in Canada and abroad. Finding himself in the hot seat before a parliamentary committee, Anandasangaree said Canada is "aggressively trying...
India would like to create a trusted traveller program with Ottawa that could ease access to Canada for Indian businesspeople similar to the NEXUS program for Canadians and Americans, New Delhi’s top envoy says. Dinesh Patnaik, India’s high commissioner to Canada, said such an arrangement could be part of the deepening ties between the two countries that follow from Prime...
Air Canada’s chief executive officer was summoned on Tuesday to explain himself before the Committee on Official Languages regarding his English-only message of condolence to the families of the pilots, including one from Quebec, who died on Sunday evening in the plane collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The statement provoked the committee’s “strong indignation” and is “incompatible with the...
Nearly 50 candidates running in April 13 vote in Terrebonne. The head of Elections Canada said voters will have to write in their pick in next month's byelection in an off-island Montreal suburb due to the long list of protest candidates running in the riding. Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault told a committee of MPs on Tuesday that the write-in...
Pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. hasn’t ruled out helping build a new oil pipeline from Alberta to the British Columbia coast under the right regulatory conditions, the company’s top executive said.
As Canadian drivers continue to see a spike in the price at the pump, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne won’t commit either way on dropping the gas tax to provide some relief. The war in the Middle East has now exceeded three weeks, with Iran continuing to block the vital Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices soaring globally. According to CAA...
Energy Minister Tim Hodgson pitched increasing natural gas flows to the United States, aimed at boosting LNG exports from the Gulf Coast and meeting rising power demand from artificial-intelligence data centers. Article content In an interview on Bloomberg Television, Hodgson said he had a “wonderful conversation” with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum during the CERAWeek...
MONTCLAIR, N.J. (AP) -- A few years ago, Allison Posner was barely involved in politics.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Florida Democrats, beaten down by years of Republican domination in what was once the consummate battleground state, claimed new optimism Wednesday after a special election victory in President Donald Trump's home district.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump showed off a classified map on a 2022 flight to his New Jersey golf club and held onto a record from his first term that was so sensitive only six people would have had access to it, according to a letter released Wednesday by a top House Democrat.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is accusing U.S. President Donald Trump of fuelling the war in Iran to distract from the millions of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, also referred to as the “Epstein files,” saying the conflict is driving up gas prices for Canadians. In an interview with CTV’s Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday, Kinew...
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is accusing U.S. President Donald Trump of fuelling the war in Iran to distract from the millions of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, also referred to as the “Epstein files,” saying the conflict is driving up gas prices for Canadians. In an interview with CTV’s Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday, Kinew...
Democrat Emily Gregory won a special election for a Florida state House seat on Tuesday, flipping a district that is home to President Donald Trump's estate, Mar-a-Lago. The Republican president endorsed Gregory's rival, Jon Maples. In a social media post Monday, he urged voters to turn out, saying Maples was endorsed "by so many of my Palm Beach County friends."...
India would like to create a trusted traveller program with Ottawa that could ease access to Canada for Indian businesspeople similar to the NEXUS program for Canadians and Americans, New Delhi’s top envoy says. Dinesh Patnaik, India’s high commissioner to Canada, said such an arrangement could be part of the deepening ties between the two countries that follow from Prime...
President Donald Trump took to social media Saturday to celebrate the death of Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who famously led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Iran’s top military spokesman has warned that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide won’t be safe for Tehran’s enemies. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi made the threat Friday as Iran continues to be hit by American and Israeli airstrikes. It was likely to renew concerns that as the war goes on, Iran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle...
Canada’s renewed embrace of industrial policy and megaprojects signals a decisive shift toward an activist ‘nation-of‑builders’ strategy. However, a real test of its success is whether it can support lasting, community‑led prosperity in regions that depend on natural resource extraction or energy generation.
Canada’s housing shortage is no longer just an affordability problem. It is increasingly a constraint on economic growth, labour mobility, and the ability of cities to function effectively. Despite record levels of construction employment and investment, housing supply continues to fall far short of what Canadians need. The core problem lies in a sustained decline in residential construction productivity. Employment...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Canadian troops may be only days away from deploying to the Middle East to aid the U.S.’s and Israel’s war on Iran. The latest indication is a joint statement expressing concern about Iran’s restriction of oil tankers through the narrow Strait of Hormuz signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and NATO allies late in the week.
Canadians who have neglected to pay their taxes to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) have been coming forward in droves to take advantage of new amnesty rules.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s spurious excuses for gutting the province’s freedom-of-information (FOI) law are exactly why we need transparency legislation in the first place: governments are habitual liars. Last week, the Ford government said it plans to weaken its sunshine law by erecting brick walls around every minister’s office, including the premier’s. Freedom-of-information requests will no longer be accepted. The...
Newly declassified documents reveal the extraordinary depth and reach the Canadian government took to spy on Indigenous leaders in the ‘60s and ‘70s. This new reporting is the result of a years-long effort by CBC Indigenous and CBC Investigates. Today we hear how the RCMP infiltrated and sought to disrupt legitimate political Indigenous organizations, in an extensive program of covert...
It's a war between Israel, the US and Iran...but how did Lebanon get dragged into it? Its militia group, Hezbollah, is a loyal proxy of the Iranian regime, placing tens of millions of Lebanese citizens at risk in the name of loyalty to its top financier and ally. More than 1000 people have been killed, and more than a million...
Since the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran almost a month ago, the ripple effects of the war have been felt globally. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has affected oil prices worldwide, but energy shocks are especially felt across the rest of Asia, which is heavily dependent on energy from the Gulf states. The 35 million migrant workers...
Pierre Poilievre has had a mixed year—strong party support but slipping poll numbers as Liberals gain ground. After a U.S. trip and a high-profile appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Stephanie Taylor discusses whether it boosts his appeal to Canadian voters.
